Nick of the Woods eBook

the spring. While thus engaged, the cap of the
sufferer fell from his head, and Roland saw that Nathan
carried with him a better cause for the affliction
than could be referred to any mere temporary emotion,
however overwhelming to the mind. A horrible scar
disfigured the top of his head, which seemed to have
been, many years before, crushed by the blows of a
heavy weapon; and it was equally manifest that the
savage scalping-knife had done its work on
the mangled head.

The soldier had heard that injuries to the head often
resulted in insanity of some species or other; he
could now speculate, on better grounds, and with better
reason, upon some of those singular points of character
which seemed to distinguish the houseless Nathan from
the rest of his fellow-men.

CHAPTER XXIV.

The convulsion was but momentary, and departed with
almost the same suddenness that marked its accession.
Nathan started half up, looked wildly around him,
surveying the bodies of the two Piankeshaws, and the
visage of the sympathising soldier. Then snatching
up and replacing his hat with one hand, and grasping
Roland’s with the other, he exclaimed, as if
wholly unconscious of what had happened him,—­

“Thee has heard it, and thee knows it,—­thee
knows what the Shawnees have done to me—­they
have killed them all, all that was of my blood!
Had they done so by thee, friend,” he demanded
with eagerness, “had they done so by thee,
what would thee have done to them?”

“Declared eternal war upon them and their accursed
race!” cried Roland, greatly excited by the
story; “I would have sworn undying vengeance,
and I would have sought it,—­ay, sought
it without ceasing. Day and night, summer and
winter, on the frontier and in their own lands and
villages, I would have pursued the wretches, and pursued
them to the death.”

“Thee is right,” cried Nathan, wringing
the hand he still held, and speaking with a grin of
hideous approval;—­“by night and by
day, in summer and in winter, in the wood and in the
wigwam, thee would seek for their blood, and thee
would shed it;—­thee would think of thee
wife and thee little babes, and thee heart would be
as stone and fire within thee—­thee would
kill, friend, thee would kill, thee would kill!”
And the monosyllable was breathed over and over again
with a ferocity of emphasis that showed how deep and
vindictive was the passion in the speaker’s
mind. Then,—­with a transition of feeling
as unexpected as it was abrupt, he added, still wringing
Roland’s hand, as if he had found in him a sympathizing
friend, whose further kindness he was resolved to deserve,
and to repay,—­“Thee is right; I have
thought about what thee has said—­Thee shall
have assistance. Thee is a brave man, and thee
has not mocked at me because of my faith. Thee
enemies shall be pursued, and the maid thee loves
shall be restored to thee arms.”